28th August 2002 Archive

Nortel is to axe a further 7,000 jobs amid warnings that it will once again miss its revenue target.The company blamed the job cuts on the depressed telco sector, and in particular, on further reductions in spending by service providers in the US.

Israel-based Midbar Tech announced yesterday that 10 million CDs using its Cactus Data Shield technology have been released in Japan, bringing the total number of music CDs using the controversial copy-protection utility to about 30 million. Coincidentally, a Japanese entrepreneur is credited with the 1962 invention of the versatile writing instrument called the fibre- or felt-tip pen.

One of the most attractive things about Linux is the number of installation options one is presented with and how tempting it is to customize. But for a newbie, in terms of Web security and PC hygiene, that's also the worst thing about it. The fact is, Windows is easier than Linux for a casual user to make fairly secure, whereas Linux is easier than Windows for a power user to make very secure.

Tech workers from overseas will find it harder to obtain UK work permits, following the government's decision to remove all IT jobs from its shortage occupation list. The change to so-called Tier One Fast Track Visas (FTV) takes effect on September 1.

We've had quite a few emails from Windows 2000 Service Pack refuseniks who propose not to go anywhere near SP3 on the grounds that the installation insists you agree to the new-look Microsoft 'snooper's charter' supplementary licence in order to apply it. The critical clauses seem to be becoming standard for Microsoft products, and although they can be presented as helpful/necessary for updates, they could also be used for DRM purposes, and provide cover for more widespread snooping.

Last week we told you how to install Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 without having to agree to Microsoft's all-new 'we can steal your stuff but we're not going to, honest' supplementary licence. We accepted at the time, of course, that the exercise was essentially frivolous, in that you'd probably be in breach of your licence agreement anyway if you circumvented the new Ts & Cs, and because just circumventing it wouldn't do anything to block the activities you objected to.

Recently I posted an article lamenting MS' sudden withdrawal of its previously free TrueType fonts for the Web, and complaining that this leaves *nix users in a lurch for truly handsome fonts to use in X.

A certain remote root vulnerability in a Microsoft application called File Transfer Manager (FTM), a gimmick for developers, beta testers and volume license addicts (i.e., most of their corporate customers) alike, is not serious and there's almost no chance that some wily blackhat has used it against you.

They've sued Napster and Scour into submission; realizing that this is expensive, they've bought numerous Congressional lapdogs to force the DoJ to become their personal 'Copyright 911' so that challenges to their production and distribution monopoly can be hounded down and eliminated at the taxpayer's expense rather than their own; they've lobbied Congress to impose DRM controls on virtually all media and virtually all devices, including your computer; and now, for a final assault on human dignity, the Recording Industry Ass. of America has sued for the right to determine which Web sites you and I will be permitted to visit.

Almost three months ago those nice people at Sun offered a free DVD of Solaris for Intel or Sparc. But as the weeks rolled by and silence (apart from spam from Sun) reigned, descriptive phrases involving words like "duplicitous", "bastards", "mouth" and "trousers" increasingly sprang to the lips of that fine collection of freeloaders which constitutes The Register's readership.

If they can sell burnt, ruined coffee at premium prices, why not wireless Web access one could have for free? So goes the reasoning behind Starbucks' decision to offer WiFi at $30.00 a month in Portland, Oregon's Pioneer Square, where free access is already provided by grassroots outfit Personal Telco.

SonyEricsson hopes to mollify developers who've discovered that writing native C++ applications for the much-hyped P800 can carry a hefty fee. The move favors the savvy rather than savant: determined Linux developers should be able to get in for nothing.

We've found Fred Langa absolutely hysterical for years, so we're pleased to see we've finally been able - however unintentionally - to repay our debt to the Great Man. We are, apparently, hysterical, yellow-tinted, inflammatory, and publish (amongst, he concedes, better stuff) embarrasingly shallow rants. We wouldn't ordinarily trouble you with the maunderings of some overpaid boat-anchor, but Fred, by getting it absolutely wrong, illustrates why it's vital that people are aware of the steady ratcheting upwards of Microsoft's (and indeed the software industry's in general) licensing terms and conditions, and why it is important to worry about them.